THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION OF THE EUROPEAN BORDER REGIME

The Powers and Perils of Imagining Future Borders

Paul Trauttmansdorff

First published in Great Britain in 2024 by

Bristol University Press

University of Bristol

1-9 Old Park Hill

Bristol

BS2 8BB

UK

t: +44 (0)117 374 6645

e: bup-info@bristol.ac.uk

Details of international sales and distribution partners are available at bristoluniversitypress.co.uk

© Bristol University Press 2024

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978-1-5292-3520-3 hardcover

ISBN 978-1-5292-3521-0 ePub

ISBN 978-1-5292-3522-7 ePdf

The right of Paul Trauttmansdorff to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved: no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission of Bristol University Press.

Every reasonable effort has been made to obtain permission to reproduce copyrighted material. If, however, anyone knows of an oversight, please contact the publisher.

The statements and opinions contained within this publication are solely those of the author and not of the University of Bristol or Bristol University Press. The University of Bristol and Bristol University Press disclaim responsibility for any injury to persons or property resulting from any material published in this publication.

Bristol University Press works to counter discrimination on grounds of gender, race, disability, age and sexuality.

Cover design: Liam Roberts Design

Front cover image: iStock/koto_feja

Bristol University Press uses environmentally responsible print partners.

Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY

Contents

  • List of Figures iv

  • List of Abbreviations v

  • About the Author vii

  • Acknowledgements viii

  1. 1Introduction 1

  2. First Interlude: Doing Research From Within the Border Regime 21

  3. 2The Imaginary of Digital Transformation 26

  4. Second Interlude: Three Empirical Vignettes 44

  5. 3Assembling a Fractional Europe 51

  6. Third Interlude: Another Vignette—The Golden Age? 68

  7. 4Crafting the Epistemology of Smart Borders 71
  8. 5Interoperability: Making a New Policy Fiction 96
  9. 6Justification, Techno-Determinism, and Sanitized Realities: The Perils of Imagining Future Borders 113
  10. 7Coda 127

  • Appendix A: Overview of Existing and Future Large-Scale IT Systems Under eu-LISA’s Management 131

  • Appendix B: List of Conducted Interviews and Sites of Participant Observation 138

  • Notes 140

  • References 150

  • Index 177

List of Figures

  1. 2.1“Transformation”, a slide presented at the ID@Borders conference (April 2019) by eu-LISA 34
  2. 2.2Indicative timeline for the establishment of smart borders 40
  3. 2.3eu-LISA’s HQ in Tallinn, Estonia 44
  4. 2.4eu-LISA’s HQ and the old Seaplane Harbour (in the back left) 45
  5. 2.5Rue de Schengen in Strasbourg, the street behind eu-LISA data centre 48
  6. 2.6eu-LISA data centre in Strasbourg 49
  7. 3.1A livestreamed speech by eu-LISA’s former Executive Director at the annual conference of eu-LISA (2019) 56
  8. 3.2Screenshot of eu-LISA’s announcement of its anniversary conference (October 2022) in Tallinn, Estonia 64
  9. 3.3Conference setting at eu-LISA’s annual conference (2019) at Tallinn, Estonia 69
  10. 4.1“What’s next?”, a slide presented at the ID@Borders conference (April 2019) by eu-LISA 81
  11. 4.2“Stay Open, Stay Secure”, a slide presented at the ID@Borders conference (April 2019) by eu-LISA 87
  12. 4.3A flyer for the eu-LISA industry roundtable in 2019 94

List of Abbreviations

Organizational entities

EC

European Commission

EDPS

European Data Protection Supervisor

EP

European Parliament

EU

European Union

EUAA

European Union Agency for Asylum, formerly European Asylum Support Office (formerly EASO, until 19 February 2022)

eu-LISA

European Union Agency for the Operational Management of Large-Scale IT Systems in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice

EUROPOL

European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation

FRA

Fundamental Rights Agency

Frontex

European Border and Coast Guard Agency (frontières extérieures)

HLEG

High-Level Expert Group on Information Systems and Interoperability

INTERPOL

International Criminal Police Organization

LIBE

Committee of the European Parliament on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

OSCE

Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe

Information systems and technological components

CIR

Common Identity Repository (Interoperability component)

ECRIS-TCN

European Criminal Record Information System for Third-Country Nationals

EES

Entry/Exit System

ESP

European Search Portal (Interoperability component)

ETIAS

European Travel Information and Authorisation System

Eurodac

European Dactyloscopic Database

MID

Multiple Identity Detector (Interoperability component)

RTP

Registered Traveler Program

sBMS

shared Biometric Matching Service (Interoperability component)

SIS II

Schengen Information System—“second generation”

SIS

Schengen Information System

VIS

Visa Information System

About the Author

Paul Trauttmansdorff is a researcher in Science and Technology Studies whose work has explored controversies surrounding technological and infrastructural innovation, the evolution of large-scale IT systems, and the transformations in border and mobility regimes. His particular interest revolves around inquiries into the societal, political, and ethical repercussions of digital transformations, as well as the collective imaginaries that underpin them.

Paul Trauttmansdorff obtained his MSc degree in Political Sociology from the London School of Economics and Political Science and completed his PhD in Science and Technology Studies at the University of Vienna. He held a fellowship with the Austrian Academy of Sciences from 2018 to 2021 and was a recipient of the Marietta-Blau scholarship from Austria’s Agency of Education and Internationalization. Between 2022 and 2023, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Philosophy and Communication Studies, University of Bologna, and as a fellow on the ERC Starting Grant Project “Processing Citizenship—Digital registration of migrants as co-production of citizens, territory and Europe”. In October 2023, he joined the European New School of Digital Studies, European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder), as a research fellow. Paul Trauttmansdorff is the co-editor of Technopolitics and the Making of Europe. Infrastructures of Security (with Nina Klimburg-Witjes, Routledge).

Acknowledgements

I want to express my appreciation for the invaluable contributions, ideas, and input provided by colleagues and friends at various stages and in diverse locations and settings, as they have significantly shaped the content of this book. I extend my gratitude to everyone at the Department of Science and Technology Studies, University of Vienna, which has served as my intellectual home for my years as PhD student. I am particularly grateful to Ulrike Felt, who offered her continued support and guidance as my supervisor of my thesis. I am also indebted to the Department of Philosophy and Communication at the University of Bologna, where I had the privilege of collaborating with exceptional colleagues as part of the Processing Citizenship project led by Annalisa Pelizza.

During my research journey for this book, I have found inspiration from numerous researchers in the fields of Science & Technology Studies, Critical Migration Studies, as well as Critical Security and Border Studies. I am thankful for the ongoing exchange of ideas and the rich intellectual environment fostered by the STS-MIGTEC network, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Here and elsewhere, numerous outstanding colleagues have contributed to shaping the ideas and arguments for this book, offered generous feedback, or provided valuable comments.

I extend my gratitude to Paul Stevens from Bristol University Press for his generous support throughout the editing and publication process. Additionally, I would like to thank the reviewers, who provided insightful comments and feedback on both the book’s proposal and the manuscript, which were instrumental in refining its content.

I offer my heartfelt thanks to all the counterparts and individuals who generously participated in interviews and conversations, shared their knowledge and experiences, and to those who kindly granted me access to crucial empirical sites, events, or materials.

Furthermore, I am thankful for the financial and institutional support I received from various funding bodies and academic departments over the years of writing, revising, or editing this book: the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austria’s Agency for Education and Internationalisation (OeAD), the Faculty of Social Sciences and the Vienna Doctoral School of Social Sciences at the University of Vienna, and the European New School of Digital Studies at the European University Viadrina.

Parts of the Introduction of this book have been printed in Tecnoscienza, Italian Journal for Science & Technology Studies, available at http://www.tecnoscienza.net/index.php/tsj/article/view/531. This is available open access under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2038-3460/17584).

Chapter 2 is a modified version of an article written and published together with Ulrike Felt, in Science, Technology, and Human Values, 17 November 2021, available online: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/01622439211057523.

Chapter 5 is derived from an article in Critical Policy Studies, Taylor & Francis, 15 November 2022, available online: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19460171.2022.2147851.